Recent elections have been problematic thanks to so many of us having been displaced. Of course, it is absoutely appropriate and correct that residents temporarily residing elsewhere have been kept on the rolls, and many have been participating.

However, as time goes on, we need to gradually get back to the more normal situation where voting rights are reserved for those of us who live here. So far, I am absolutely glad to be part of an electorate that includes everyone who intends to return home, along with those us who have already come home. As time goes on, however, I am feeling gradually worse about including voters who won’t be back, especially those who have no intention of ever returning but who choose to exert their influence on our civic affairs.

As an Orleans Parish poll commissioner since Katrina, I have a pretty good perspective on the current post-K election situation. An effort to purge to rolls of non-participating voters is just now getting underway, and I agree that this is the appropriate time to do it. To have done it earlier would have been unjust to the many evacuees with intentions to return, but by now, it is definitely time to get this process underway.

However, I’m sure there will be many errors in determining which names to erase from the rolls and which to keep. At my address, for example, four extra individuals are on the rolls (our three grown-up-and-gone kids, plus my brother who has lived outside the US for over ten years). When I checked the long list of voter name about to be removed, published in the T-P a day or two ago, only one of those four names appeared, our daughter’s. (She might be the one most likely to return here, too…)

I always thought that meant that a majority of New Orleans folk were voting on some basis other than race.

I’m just surprised that it is such a surprise that turn out was low. Did anyone enjoy the choices. I’m glad that Cheryl Gray won. That is the one contest in which I voted for a candidate. In the other two contests I voted against a candidate. (Of course, I’m now telling you how I voted, which is a pretty stupid thing to do. Please, note that I don’t endorse candidates on this blog.)

African-American is a cultural identity. It’s not about color. (I can’t believe I’m voicing opinions on this. I do hope I don’t sound like a complete idiot.)

If we’re finally coming around to the point where candidiates are chosen on the basis of their qualifications and their opinions on critical issues, and not the color of their skin, we migth finally be making some REAL progress.

The recent city council runoff pitted two overly-familiar old-school pols against each other. That may explain the low turnout better than any racial interpretation.

Anyway: Is Cynthia’s skin really any darker than Jackie’s?

We’re talking about 20% turnout city-wide and all that.

That’s the story. “The political ruling class” is rotten fruit we’re all ignoring.